Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) wireless communication systems, such as those compliant with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 family of standards, typically use a network of base stations to communicate with wireless devices (i.e., mobile stations) registered for services in the systems based on the orthogonality of frequencies of multiple subcarriers and can be implemented to achieve a number of technical advantages for wideband wireless communications, such as resistance to multipath fading and interference. Each base station (BS) emits and receives radio frequency (RF) signals that convey data to and from the mobile stations (MS).
One type of communication between the BS and the MS involves peer-to-peer communication on the network layer, or Layer 3 (L3) of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Basic Reference Model (or OSI Model). This L3 peer-to-peer (P2P) communication is used by all of the signaling protocol, and the related scenarios occur during the initial network entry procedure, network re-entry procedure, or the normal operational mode.
During the initial network entry procedure and network re-entry procedure, an internet protocol (IP) connection has not yet been established, so there is no data traffic between the BS and the MS. Each pair of L3 peer-to-peer communications protocol (e.g., a request/response message pair) has a timeout value, and some pairs have a maximum number of retries associated therewith. With request/response message pairs, after the MS transmits a request message, the MS has to wait and scan all of the incoming symbols until it receives a response message or resends the request message after the timeout period expires (i.e., a timeout timer reaches the timeout value associated with the particular request/response message pair).